the gas project

Lily is a small breakfast and lunch eatery down a small street in Devonport. Lily has a big heart and is the love child of Lily and Jason Ng. Lily runs the kitchen, and has a CV that includes time at Baduzzi and Clarence Road Eatery. Almost everything in the cafe is made from scratch, with a food philosophy of simple things made well. We complimented the stripped back interior look by the client with a simple typographic identity with a couple of small illustrated ‘add ons’ and created a website experience equally minimalistic.

Al Brown doesn’t do anything by halves. When he said he was planning a BBQ for some folks and wanted a logo, we were on board. When he said the BBQ was for 1000 people, with transport to a food forest, live art, drink stations and a concert by Dave Dobbyn, we went overboard.

Rita is the second venture by Kelda Hains and Paul Schrader of Nikau Cafe fame. A small dining room, in a small converted shop, on a small street in Aro Valley. The menu is small too, because its a set menu and changes depending on what’s available from the garden and what’s good from their suppliers. The interior is by Mary Daish. In short, it’s a thing of beauty. We were more than happy to help out with an identity and some small pieces of print work. Go now.

No 7 Balmac is a cafe / restaurant on Maori Hill in Dunedin. For a number of years it’s been faithfully serving locals and visitors with fresh flavours from ingredients largely grown in their own garden. After a recent interior upgrade it was felt the old identity could do with a bit of a refresh too. This was one of those surprise commissions where we had no idea when starting the project just what an amazing place this is, peopled with very passionate, skilled folks in a corner of Dunedin we’d never explored. We worked up a new identity focussed on applewood (which they cook on) and developed new menus, signage, website and postcards. Just go.

This post has been a long time coming. Al Brown’s The Federal Delicatessen opened a few years ago and has been going from strength the strength. Gas worked alongside Al and architect Charlie Nott to bring a little bit of NYC to downtown Auckland. An ongoing pleasure.

Just to prove not all of our clients are high-flying big-city types, we’re working with the owners of the Lauder Pub in Central Otago on an update of their identity. The image is based on an image we found in the archives of two fellas who used to shoot rabbits from a hand cart. As Lauder is located on the Rail Trail, it’s the perfect place to stop off and have a cold, craft brew to wash the dust off.

Earlier this year we resisted the urge to automatically reach for the black pencils, and instead we dug out our coloured ones to work up an identity for a new recruitment app called mploy. Created by a couple of guys in the hospitality sector, mploy is looking to shake the temp agency market up, and has just launched. 

Frasers cafe is in Mt Eden, Auckland, and makes (by many peoples opinion) the best cakes and coffee in the city. What they don’t do is update their interiors much, it being 18 years since the space was given any sort of love. We were approached, along with Charlie at Nott Architects (together as Two Right Group) to update the space after the building had been strengthened. As well as making the space more luxe, we created a new logo, website and menu design, as well as supplying some tasty props for the shelves, including an early Viner racing bike.

Boost are a NZ based web and mobile app company. They approached Gas to update their brand, with a mandate to keep red in the palette. Needless to say while we listened to the client we also couldn’t help playing, making the identity extremely flexible, which is nice.

Mr Go’s had been opened for just 3 months before an earthquake made the building unsafe. But in that short time it had created quite a following. Now open again, they’re back serving Bao buns, craft beer and cocktails. Named after an early Chinese market gardener in Wellington, Gas were called early on to develop the brand, creating a suite of logos, website, signage, posters and an unhealthy craving for the Kung-pao cauliflower. Welcome back Mr Go.